Project on Young Men and Porn Draws to a Close

The main goal of "Killar om porr" has been to give children and young people, particularly guys, an opportunity to reflect on and talk about porn and consent openly and safely. To facilitate these conversations, we have used our own support chat on Killar.se (a website for boys and young men) and trained other adults who meet children and young people. Above all, we have worked with outreach activities where guys, in particular, have talked to other guys.

Performance Anxiety is Common

Common themes that have come up when we have talked to guys about porn during the project include feeling unable to stop watching, having thoughts about the content, and feeling a pressure to perform sexually – and getting performance anxiety – because of common sexual practices in porn. It is evident that many guys struggle with expectations, especially from other guys, to enjoy watching porn.

Porn is much easier to access today than before. The first porn encounter for children and young people is usually “mainstream porn”, which is easily accessible, for free, online. It is unusual for mainstream porn to include examples of how to obtain sexual consent, and in many cases also contains elements of physical, verbal, and sexualized violence.

A main question for the project has been whether this affects how young viewers think about sex and, if so, in what way. A survey commissioned by MÄN as part of the project showed that four out of ten guys aged 13–25 want to watch less porn and have a negative attitude towards it. Only 17 percent of the respondents report having a positive attitude towards porn, while a significant 69 percent believe that other guys in the surveyed age group like porn. During the project's final year, an extensive analysis of the chat conversations held with boys about porn was conducted, and the same patterns can be discerned there.

A Unique Conversation

In early 2022, MÄN and Sverok (The Swedish Gaming Federation) recruited a group of ambassadors aged 17–24. They were trained to talk to guys about norms, power, violence, sexism, and porn, as well as inclusive treatment and intervening against various types of violence and violations, using gaming culture as a starting point for the discussions.

“The ambassadors say that for many of the guys, this has been the first time they have been in a context where they have been able to reflect on norms, power, violence, sexism, and porn in an open and safe way, and that this has felt liberating and empowering. It is nice that the project has managed to create spaces that many guys need but rarely or never have access to," says Karin Caspani, project manager at MÄN.

Dreamhack Gaming Festival

The ambassadors have had workshops with guys in Sverok-affiliated gaming associations across the country, at two editions of Dreamhack (the world's largest festival for network computer games), Närcon (a festival for cosplay), Almedalsveckan (an annual political event), the project's final conference, and in the Killar.se podcast. As part of the project,  Killar.se, MÄN's support platform for guys, has been used to reach the target audience.

“At Dreamhack, together with our partner Sverok and our ambassadors, we talked to 2300 attendees, primarily young people, at our stand. We had a conversation wheel that you spin to get a question or a topic that you then discuss with us and your friends. It resulted in incredibly nice conversations with guys about, for example, why they like each other, how to be a good friend, what is important in a relationship, consent, and strategies to counteract and avoid violence online," says Andreas Carlin, method developer at MÄN.

Educating Adults

In addition to conversations with young people, an important component of the “Killar om porr” project has been to educate and increase the knowledge of adults who are important to the target group, such as parents and professionals in their vicinity. For professionals who meet children and young people in their professional lives, there is a full-day training and accompanying handbook, and for parents and other significant adults a guide on how to talk about porn and consent has been developed which is freely available on our website